'm going to ignore him. whatwasromneydoing?he was winning. >> he was winning. >>allright. goodmorning. it's thursday, october 4th. welcome to "morning joe." wow! page turns a bit. with us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle and national affairs for "new york" magazine and political analyst john heilemann. and in nashville, i love nashville, pulitzer prize-winning historian jon meacham. meacham. should we go right there? >> in one second. i've -- we've got to set this up first for mike barnicle. we've all been saying the same thing. phone calls coming in last night from my democratic friends, independent friends, republicans, everybody's been asking the same thing, where did this come from? we've never seen this mitt romney before, but you say you have. >> yes, this is how mitt romney became governor of massachusetts in 2002 during a series of debates. he was exactly this way as he was last night. he came in prepared. he had a plan. he executed it. he was armed with specific information. he went right at the opponent. then it was shannon o'brien running for governor

wisconsin.theromneypeoplestill think he can. after that debate and after barack obama's performance, which was staggeringly bad. >> all right. >> no, i mean it. >> he's right. >> okay. >> i'm hearing this from democrats. and this broke through. we always hear about how americans aren't paying attention. they're looking at reality shows. this broke through, everybody was talking about it, not just how well romney did but how badly the president performed. >> well, just as i think it was premature to declare the race over before, i think it's too soon to say that that performance, as widely watched as it was, is going to move numbers. we have yet to see any numbers move. i think they probably will some. and i think that on the other hand, did governor romney win the day yesterday in the news cycle, given how strong he was thursday night? he didn't decisively win it. he did one event late in the day. look at the evening newscasts. look at the morning papers. >> he doesn't have to win every day. >> oh, i think he's got to win most days. he lost about two months of days. i think he's at

of the ball to the delivery of the plate.mittromney's gotto find preciselytherightarmslot. aggression with the right amount of respect for a popular president. he's got to figure out a way to flush out his agenda without getting to the unpopular parts he's been avoiding talking about like what are the tax breaks he's going to take to get the rates down. he's got to be on offense but not too much. it's hard. everything went right for george bush in 2000. gore was bad, he had orange make-up. he got in bush's face, that didn't go very well. bush overperformed, no foreign policy experience, he did very well. and the bush team outspun the gore people because they pushed their story line. and you went from, you know, minus five before the debate to plus a couple afterward and went on to win that disputed victory. but yes, romney can do it, he was a smart guy, good in most of the debates for the republicans. on the other hand, obama's pretty smart too and there's not much expectation to think he's going to screw up. >> what about, john, playing to that dull incompetent thing? he said in his